The 4 HDMI Requirements Your System Needs

Jeff -

Thanks for all of the info on HDMI! However, as a small integrator, I’m still having trouble figuring out what will work - there’s so much information, and as you say above, much of it is either misleading or incomplete. Other than spending a ton of money to test products and combinations of products, what can a guy like me do to determine what will work both now and in the future?

For example, as I bury HDMI cables in clients’ walls, I want to be able to reassure them that we won’t have to rip them out and replace them when they upgrade their TV/Projector/etc.

Thanks -
Rob Schultz
Inspired Electronics, Inc.
http://www.inspired-electronics.com

Smurf Tube with a pull string my friend.
It’s more valuable than any cable for future proofing a system.

That’s my .02
(Well, with my stocks it’s about .0001)

Good Luck!

Hey Jeff,

Great info, but how does an installer know whether or not a certain HDMI cable will pass these 4 issues correctly? There doesn’t seem to be enough info from the manufactures of either the cables or the source devices themselves. Although Monster is making a good attempt, I haven’t seen any cable manufacturer quantify all of these issues on their HDMI cables. How are we to know what will work and what won’t?

This article, like most other CEPro articles, needs to be about six pages longer.  There is a lot of information being left out in this article.  Please don’t assume we know everything you are talking about.  Don’t be afraid to write something worth while.

Hey Kevin,

Thanks for the feedback. If you’re looking for a more in-depth picture of HDMI, check out these two resources:

http://www.cepro.com/webinars/details/hdmi_vs_component

http://www.cepro.com/whitepapers/details/installers_guide_to_hdmi/

I recently attended a fabulous presentation by Jeff Boccaccio on HDMI. It explained just about everything you need to know, including these questions. I am not sure if you know, but Jeff Boccaccio has a certification company that scores HDMI products.Their web site is dplrating.org. There you will find a list of companies that have joined the program. The presentation was incredible and the web site a great tool. He explained to us that all the companies receive a complete engineering report on all the products tested. With that each firm can take the data and use it to improve their products. You won’t see any low scores, you will only see the scores the companies want to sow and are selling.
Great Job Jeff!

Everyone is on the stick with this listing. In a nutshell, there is never one perfect way to keep yourself and your customers safe, however that said there are steps to give you the best chances for a successful installation.
1) Clearly it would be advisable to stage the job before you go in.
2) Categorize all the systems and set ups so you know what works with what. This is a real challenge because products change all the time and you could never be sure you are using the same HDMI components within each product. Just because it is a Brand X does not mean that Brand X will use the same electronics on every product.
3) Of course, as mentioned earlier, DPL Labs is always a great place to visit to check out products and their scores. The better your products scores the less likely you will have an issue with it.
There should be one thing mention here that many don’t really see. As you go through the DPL site you will notice that most of the products score pretty good. This is due to the fact that each company has the right not to post products they don’t want too. So you will see some limited products up on the boards. The good news is that every single firm that is part of DPL is using the engineering reports to build better and better products. Already we are seeing a huge effort and success with this. We never really thought so many firms would be so pro active with the interface. We will keep you all posted as products come in. The testing is a long process, so keep checking back for new scores.